The Test
by silver light of dawn
Summary: She couldn't help but stare at the little white stick and its mocking pink plus sign.
1. Chapter 1

She sat there staring at the little white stick and its mocking little pink positive sign. A shaking hand ran through her loose blond hair as she tried to gather her thoughts. She had suspected that this was what the test would say, but had hoped very hard that it would be negative.

A cry in the next room alerted her that her son was awake and probably wanted to be fed. He had his father's appetite after all. She held back her tears and went to tend to the baby that she had already given birth to.

Her eleven-month old son's nearly black colored green eyes peered at her from his specially reinforced crib. They had learned early on when Iggy had started walking, climbing, and sneezing fire that nothing short of the strongest of cribs could hold him in. They had called in a few favors with Gajeel to have the iron dragonslayer construct a Natsu spawn-proof bed, and now Lucy could have a few moments of peace ever so often without her demolition baby destroying the house.

As Lucy picked Iggy up out of the crib, the baby seemed to sense his mother's distress and take it as his own. He began to fuss and whimper and tear at her shirt. Lucy quickly sat in her comfortable rocking chair and lifted her shirt for him. He wasted no time in latching on to her breast. Nothing comforted little Igneel as quickly as his mother's warm milk straight from the tap.

Lucy's mind raced as her son gulped down his meal. She had not planned on having a baby again so soon. Igneel was enough trouble already. He had taken so much after his father that Master Makarov often broke out into tears and mutterings of 'property damage' every time he saw the boy. Igneel even _looked_ just like his father in every detail, right down to the wild pink hair.

Every day was a challenge with such a destructive baby. Igneel managed to break things on a daily basis, and it did not help matters that he could set things on fire. The first time he had set the living room curtains on fire had nearly sent her into a panic. Fortunately, Natsu had been home to handle the blaze, laughing at his son's antics the entire time.

The two of them were going to make her go grey headed.

Tears began welling up in her eyes again as she thought about having yet _another_ Natsu clone to destroy things. Plus, Igneel was so young, and even having two normal babies so close together was often challenging. She didn't know if she, or even the guild, could handle it. So…much…fire…

In all honesty, she should not have been surprised at all by the current turn of events. This would be her second birth control failure. Igneel had been conceived while she had been taking The Potion. She had not intended to have children so soon after marriage. In fact, she had been pregnant with Igneel on her first wedding anniversary. This time around they had been using The Potion _and_ condoms, but Natsu kept melting the condoms. He was always very sorry afterwards, but it did not change the fact that there had been many accidents.

Lucy looked down at Igneel's deceptively innocent face as he nursed. Could she really handle another?

Her next concern was with how Natsu was going to take the news. He had so easily agreed to wearing condoms, although he hated them, that she firmly believe he also did not want another child so soon. Then again, they had never once actually discussed how many children that they wanted to have together. Natsu had just gone along with whatever she said she wanted.

That thought made her blood run a few degrees cooler. What if he had never actually wanted children, but went along with everything because that was what he always did?

She shook her head. The pregnancy hormones were already in full swing. Her hormones had been just as bad when she was pregnant with Igneel. But it could have been worse. Natsu had always said that he would never complain no matter how bad she got because she could never possibly get as bad as Erza, who had been pregnant shortly before Lucy and Natsu's wedding.

No one knew how Jellal had managed to live through it.

Lucy switched sides with Iggy. She knew that she needed to calm down, but that was easier said than done. She had until Natsu got back from his mission to figure out exactly how to tell him that they were expecting another bundle of potential trouble. She also needed to figure out how to tell the guild. Makarov had managed to cry even more than Juvia when they had announced Iggy's impeding arrival. He had known just how much of a terror that Iggy was going to be.

Iggy finished with a loud and smoke filled burp. He wiggled his way down and toddled off to play with a few of his toys. Lucy just hoped that he wouldn't melt/burn/break any more of them.

Lucy had never heard of a child before Igneel that had so strongly inherited one parent's magic. Levy had theorized that it was because of how much dragonslayer magic changed the bodies of the ones who practiced it. It made them practically half dragon. It only made sense that some of the physical effects would pass over into their offspring.

Iggy's head snapped up, his attention immediately focusing towards the front of the house.

"Da! Da!"

He pushed himself to his chubby little feet and waddled in the direction of the living room. Lucy followed. She knew her son would more than likely be correct and that Natsu would soon be bursting in through the front door.

As soon as she crossed into the living room, the front door was flung open and her husband's smiling face walked through.

"We made it back alive!"

"Aye, sir!"

Lucy could not help but shake her head at her husband and his Exceed partner. They would never change.

"It's nice to see that you made it home safe and sound. How was the mission?"

"It went great! I got to do a lot of fighting, and I got the full reward."

Lucy squealed and jumped her husband in a massive bear hug. It was always worth celebrating when nothing cut into the reward money. Lucy had not had to worry about rent money since moving in with Natsu in his remodeled house, but they still had other expenses. Like property damage from Iggy.

"This calls for you getting your favorite food for dinner. How does fire chicken sound?"

"Like I have the best wife ever, that's how it sounds." Natsu went over to where Igneel had his little hands raised wanting to be picked up. He willingly obliged his son. "How's Daddy's little dragon today?"

Iggy grinned identically to his father. "Da! Da!"

Lucy smiled and began heading for the kitchen, not noticing that her pink haired husband was heading to the bathroom. She had barely begun making preparations for dinner when she felt Natsu's heat on her back.

"You left something in the bathroom."

Lucy turned to see Natsu holding her pregnancy test, a huge grin reaching from ear to ear. She quickly snatched the test from him.

"I can explain…"

"No need." He said, still smiling like the cat that got the canary. "I see that you finally found out."

Lucy frowned, trying to understand what he was saying.

"Finally found…wait! You knew!"

Laughing, Natsu nodded. "Of course I knew. After being around you when you were pregnant with Igneel, I remembered what you smell like when you are pregnant. I knew even before I took that last mission."

"Then why didn't you say anything? I was worried sick over how I was going to tell you."

"With how you freak out about stuff like this, I figured it would be better if you found out on your own."

Lucy shyly looked up at him through her hair. "So, you aren't mad or upset?"

"Why would I be?" He asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Well, we never really talked about kids, and now we have Igneel and this one… I was worried about you being okay with this."

Natsu's smile turned gentle.

"Of course I'm okay with it. I want as many kids as you are willing to give me. Thirty-three sounds like a good number."

"No way in Hell."

"Besides, I was really hoping that your potion stuff would fail again."

"…What?"

Natsu carried on obliviously.

"I was thinking about how much Igneel needs a little brother or sister, and being so close in age will make them best friends. Actually, I was thinking that we could just skip all the potions and condoms, and have a huge family!"

Lucy, by that point, had started steaming. She was about to give her beloved husband a good kick in the head when he moved behind her. Lifting her up by her waist, he laughed with mirth at her struggling and hurling curses like a sailor.

"I love you, Lucy. Even though you are so weird.

 _Completely unedited, and written while I had a fever, but it is done. This was based off of a fantastic piece of fanart that I saw on Tumblr, and was written with the artist's permission. I will probably edit this sometime soon so it isn't so…raw and convoluted._


	2. Chapter 2

If there was one thing Natsu knew, it was to never piss off his wife. She might not be an Amazonian powerhouse like Erza, or pure demoness like the normally sweet Mirajane, but she had the ability to instill abject terror in him that no other person he had ever known could ever hope to match. She also had a special weapon that no one else had ever had. The couch.

Oh, how he hated the lumpy, floral patterned monstrosity. Not only was sleeping on it uncomfortable and a sure sign of Lucy's fury, it also did not hold much of her scent like their bed did. It did not have a warm and soft blonde haired woman in it whose breasts overflowed even in his large hands…what was he talking about again?

Oh yes. Lucy's wrath.

It had become much worse lately. Lucy was in the home stretch of her pregnancy with their second child, and she was far moodier than she had ever been before. Even most of their guild mates were walking softly on their tip toes across eggshells to avoid her fury. Several had even started praying that she would hurry up and spit the kid out to end everyone's misery.

Natsu was almost praying right along with them. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge, gained from many conversations about pregnancy with both Wendy and Porlyusica before Igneel's birth, that being born too early could hurt his baby. Natsu was a lot of things; protective father was at the top of the list. He would endure his beloved wife's mood swings for a little longer if it meant the health of his second born. Fortunately, she only had about two more weeks to go, give or take.

That being said, he still dreaded the punishment he was sure to receive. He had taken a nearly two-year-old Igneel with him into the forest to give Lucy a chance to take a much needed nap. He had entertained his carbon copy of a son with various displays of his least destructive attacks. Igneel had been completely enraptured at the dazzling flames. He was so captivated that he had started to try to do them on his own.

At first, Natsu had thought it was cute and funny, not to mention it gave him a sense of pride that his son wanted to mimic him so badly. The dragon slayer could remember when he was smaller that he would do his best to copy anything that the great fire dragon he called father would do. Natsu could only hope that he and the little pink haired toddler would have a bond as strong as the one between him and his foster father.

Things quickly became much less cute when Iggy managed to pull off a rather weak version of Fire Dragon Iron Fist. The little boy looked up at his shell shocked father with a proud Dragneel grin, clearly quite proud of his accomplishment.

Natsu put on a pained smile and hugged his son, not wanting Iggy to think that his dad was not happy with him. Iggy was happy to return the hug, but Natsu barely noticed.

Lucy was going to kill him.

Not only was she super easy to set off from her pregnancy, she had also made it very clear that Iggy was driving her crazy with his fire laced sneezes and his ability to get anywhere and everywhere no matter what kind of baby proofing precautions were taken.

Child gate? He took them all apart.

Safety latches for cabinets? He took the spring out of the mechanism and made it useless.

Put things up high? Iggy's climbing skills made Lucy accuse Natsu of having some species of primate somewhere in his ancestry.  
This new development and all of its destructive potential was sure to send that last quaking and battered nerve in Lucy's possession to suicide.

As he slowly walked back to their house, Iggy happily sitting high on his father's broad shoulders, he could not help but feel like a man marching to his own funeral. Every part of him just knew how angry his wife was going to be, and how much pain he was going to be in for teaching Iggy how to be more destructive than the kid already was.

Natsu opened the door and looked around for Lucy. He might as well man up and face the music. He looked around the living room and noticed that Lucy was nowhere to be seen. All he saw was Happy lounging on the accursed couch.

"Happy? Can you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Can you take Iggy for a while? I kind of did a bad thing, and I want him in the clear when Lucy goes off on me."

The Exceed rolled his eyes, all too familiar with the routine.

"Okay, but you owe me."

"Thanks, buddy."

Happy wasted no time in spreading his wings and grabbing up the delighted little boy. Natsu knew that Iggy would be in good hands. Happy was amazingly good with him and considered him to be a little brother. Although, that still would not get Natsu out of paying Happy in twice his body weight in fish for the babysitting job.

Natsu walked into his and Lucy's bedroom. He was quickly surrounded in the combined scent of the two of them. It never ceased to bring about a sense of full body relaxation. The only thing better to him than his and Lucy's scents mingling together and surrounding him was the scent of his children.

Natsu found Lucy sitting up on the edge of the bed, facing away from him. He frowned as he noticed that she had given no sort of acknowledgement to his arrival. No matter what, she always greeted him, even when she was at her most angry.

The dragon slayer quickly made his way to her and raised her face. He was not expecting to see her face covered in tears and twisted into a pained grimace.

"Lucy?! What's wrong?!"

Lucy held up her index finger to signal him to wait a minute. After a few moments, she let out the breath that he had not realized she was holding. She trembled as he engulfed her in his arms.

"I didn't think anything of it at the time, but I was having some back pain before you left with Iggy. I have back pain all of the time, so it didn't seem like anything to worry about. I went to sleep as soon as you left. I woke up just a few minutes ago to a lot more pain, and the bed is wet."

Natsu glanced over his wife's shoulder, and sure enough, there was a rather sizable puddle. He could smell it now that he was closer and knew that she had not just pissed herself.

"I sat up, and was hit with such as strong contraction that it nearly…" Lucy stopped, her eyes widening.  
Natsu did not understand.

"It nearly what?"

Lucy's face twisted back into that pained expression, and she grabbed his hand tightly. As Natsu felt his hand nearly break, his eyes widened as he realized what was going on. Lucy had done just like this once before, when she was in labor with Iggy. She was having another contraction.

What concerned Natsu was that there had not been very much time between the two. He was not exactly a professional, but he knew that closer contractions meant closer to baby time.

Ignoring her gasping squeak, the pink haired man quickly scooped his wife up in his arms and dashed out the door. In his semi-panicked state, he did not even have a real destination in mind.

He ended up instinctively taking her to the guild. That suited him just fine.

Natsu kicked open the doors and bellowed out for someone to get Wendy or Porlyusica as quickly as possible while a red faced Lucy burrowed herself into his chest. Natsu shook his head as he rushed her into the infirmary. His weirdo wife got embarrassed over the most ridiculous things.

Wendy arrived a few minutes later and checked Lucy to see how far the labor had progressed. When the blue haired girl's eyes widened in surprise, Natsu feared the worst.

"Is something wrong, Wendy?" Lucy asked, worry etched into her now sweating face. The last contraction had been much harder than the previous ones.

"Um…I don't think this is going to take long. The baby's head is already down. You should be getting the urge to push any time now."  
Natsu and Lucy both had matching, and comical, expressions of surprise.

"But it took me half of an entire day to get to the pushing stage with Iggy!"

"Second babies are often faster than first babies." Wendy explained as she washed her hands in the infirmary's open sink. "The first baby clears the path, so to speak."

Natsu could only hold Lucy's hand as another intense contraction racked her body. She held on like he was the only thing anchoring her to the ground. Wendy continued to make preparations in the background. Natsu could hardly pay much attention as most of his focus was on his hurting wife.

He hated seeing her in so much pain. It was the worst part, to him, about having kids.  
Lucy renewed her grip on his hand and abruptly sat up.

"Wendy, it's coming!"

The sky dragon slayer grabbed some clean towels and had Natsu help Lucy into as much of an upright position as possible. Then, she lowered herself between Lucy's legs to help deliver the baby.

"Push whenever you feel the urge."

Natsu felt the bones in his hand crack as Lucy immediately began baring down with all of her considerable strength. She only stopped to take deep breaths before giving it her all again. Watching his wife work so hard to bring a life into the world made it obvious to even someone as simple as Natsu why the event was called 'labor'.

Lucy only had to repeat the process four times before Wendy announced that the head was out. As Wendy worked the shoulders free, one more push freed the rest of the newborn's body. The soft whimpers of the baby immediately pulled on Natsu's heartstrings.

Wendy put the squirmy, bloody mess of a baby onto its mother's chest. However, something was immediately noticeable.

"What is that all over her body?" Natsu asked, a little worried about the silvery sac covering all but the baby's face.

Wendy's eyes lit up.

"It's something very special and rare. When the baby came out, it was still completely covered in the sac that all babies live in inside their mothers. Normally, the sac gets a big hole torn in it, and the baby comes out without it, but yours was special. They call it being born with a 'veil over your eyes', and it is supposed to foretell that the child born with it will have an especially strong connection with the spirit world. The baby was also born face up. Babies born that way are said to be 'born stargazing'. You might have an especially powerful Celestial mage in the making."

Wendy began to clean the baby while Natsu and Lucy cooed over their new addition. Upon full removal of the sac, it was revealed that the baby was a girl. Natsu could tell that Lucy was happy to not be so badly outnumbered anymore.

When Wendy left the room to make the announcement, she also let in a scared Happy and Iggy. The two ran at the bed full speed before being picked up by Natsu.

"I brought Iggy back to the house, and you weren't there, and your bed smelled funny, and came here to the guild, and they said Lucy was having the baby already, and…"

Natsu covered Happy's mouth after setting Iggy down on the bed next to his mother and new sister.

"Calm down. Everything is fine. Look at the newest member of our family."

Natsu watched as his boys get to meet his little girl. Everything felt right with the world.

Until Iggy decided to show his mother how he could now set his fist on fire. Natsu began to sweat as Lucy snapped a frightening glare at him.

Crap, he was never going to hear the end of it this time, and he would probably be making close friends with damn couch in the near future..

 _UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU_

 _Okay. First off, I would like to thank the many friends I have on this site. Their incredible support and encouragement over the past month is the only reason I'm making my stories publicly available again. ShanaHollows, quite-a-riot, Grizzly98, Morriganfae, HoneyWriter78, FlameDragonHime, and honestly far too many others to list. Some of which I still haven't had a chance to reply much to due to the shear volume of messages/review messages I've received and the limited amount of time I've had to go through them. My job currently has me working up to 16 hours per day, 7 days per week, outdoors in all weather, but that is the nature of my line of work. Sometimes I only have to work a few hours a couple of days per week. I'm currently cleaning up from major flooding. My house and family are fine, we are up on a hill, but other things like fencing and debris are a mess. I'm also situated upstream and didn't suffer like many people downstream, and none of my animals were harmed. It's honestly pretty amazing how fortunate we've been to sustain almost no damage in the worst flood in this area in fifty years, and I'm talking about an area that gets flooding nearly every spring, so calling it a major flood is a big deal._

 _On to the less happy part of this note. I have Asperger's and very high social anxiety. The flood of horrendous messages got to the point that I had more than one anxiety episode at just the sight of a new notification in my email of a new message from this site. It felt like playing Russian Roulette to open them. The common thread among most of the hate filled messages was that they took my dislike of things they like as a personal insult. That is beyond ridiculous. My husband loves motorcycles and I hate them. Oh, no! I must hate my husband. Smh. That's how logical that is. I've stated before that the ONLY reason I come to this fandom is for the nalu pairing, and that's it. I'm ambiguous about literally every other ship as long as nalu is together. I don't care if Laxas is paired with a donkey or Cana is paired with a beer keg and a squirrel. As long as nalu is together, I don't care what ships are present. I've also been accused of being anti-diversity because I don't like threesomes with Natsu and Lucy. Because I have a strong preference for a specific ship, that makes me anti-diversity? By that logic, everyone who likes straight pairings is homophobic or if someone likes a pairing where the couple are both the same race then they are racist. It's ridiculous. Especially with the way my family is. I'm mixed race, my father and step-mother were in an open marriage (which is a huge factor for why I have an aversion to threesomes), there is pretty much every religion and political leaning in us. My dad was a progressive atheist, one of my cousins is Wiccan, my step-mother is Catholic, and I could go on. I literally live diversity._

 _The very worst was the verbal abuse I received from a writer on here that I had deeply respected and admired. The things she said to me were reprehensible, and I honestly considered outing her on what she said. She blocked me on here, but I still have the emails that ff sends you for alerts, and they have the messages. I showed the messages to a few of my friends, and they were horrified that someone with such a clean and kind public image could say such things, especially when she purports to be anti-bullying and claims to never hate on people for different opinions. But I don't have it in me to out her. I'm not mean enough to destroy someone's image, and hurt them like that out of revenge._

 _Anyway, I'm reposting for my friends. If you like, then YAY! That makes me so happy! If you don't, kiss my butt._


	3. Chapter 3

Life was never boring in the Dragneel house, no matter how much Lucy longed for a few minutes of peace. Not only did she have a husband that was well known for his destructive tendencies, she also had a two-year-old son that was a rampaging ball of fire. And she meant that literally. She had taken to keeping a small fire extinguisher hooked to her belt at all times when Natsu wasn't around to eat their son's flames. She had to admit that she had gotten rather good at using it. Even when she was working on her writing, reading a book, or cooking dinner, she could calmly detect when Igneel had set himself on fire and shoot him with the extinguisher without taking her eyes off of what she was doing.

Lucy was ever so grateful that her newest addition, four-month old baby Luna, was such a calm and sweet little girl. Her personality was the complete opposite of Iggy's. If she had been like her older brother, Lucy feared that she would have gone insane. Iggy's ability to get into things and destroy was just beyond all logic. Seriously, what kind of toddler is capable of ripping open a metal jar lid with just a fork after being told he could not have a pickle?

No one had ever truly experienced "The Terrible Twos" until they had experienced them with a fire dragon slayer toddler. It was Hell. Absolute literal flaming Hell.

Nearly everything had been set on fire at least once. A good portion of their monthly budget was set aside just to replace things that Iggy destroyed.

Because of this, Lucy had found a sympathetic ear in Master Makarov. He had been through all of it before, except on a larger scale, with the guild when Natsu and the others had been children.

Many of the others at the guild did not fully understand, or even believe, what Lucy went through on a daily basis until a few of the girls had decided to come over and bring their kids to visit. Lucy did not go to the guild on a daily basis anymore since she had so much to take care of at home, and the girls missed hanging out together.

The first time they had witnessed her calmly shoot a fiery Iggy with the extinguisher without even pausing the conversation while little Luna slept quietly strapped to her mother's chest in a baby sling, they had not seemed to believe what they had seen. Lucy got a slightly sadistic sense of satisfaction at watching them gradually realize the extent of what she went through every day.

The real kicker had been their reaction when little Iggy, who was slightly on the smaller side considering that neither of his parents were all that tall, went up to Erza's crimson haired three-year-old daughter and shouted out an enthusiastic "Fight me!".

Levy had looked on in horror.

"Oh no, Lu. You really do have a Natsu clone! I don't think the world can handle that."

Juvia had reacted with envy.

"I want to have a little miniature Gray just like you have a miniature of Natsu!" She then proceeded to be swept away in one of her fantasies. Lucy, correctly, assumed that it was about having a child with her black haired teammate.

Wendy had reacted with pity.

"I'm so sorry, Lucy. Is there any way I can help you?"

Erza's reaction made everyone cringe.

"Accept the challenge, Crimson, and live up to your name with the blood of your foes!" The proud, and evil, smile on the re-quip mage's face would feature itself in Lucy's nightmares for months to come.

Lucy snatched up Iggy. He might drive her to the brink of a nervous breakdown on a daily basis, but she still loved her little monster.

"Don't mind him, Erza. He hasn't had enough training to fight anyone, yet."

All of the females present let out a sigh of relief at Erza's compliance and expression of disappointment.

The visit took a much more pleasant and relaxed tone once the women started passing Luna around for cuddles and hugs. Everyone noted the bits of golden hair, showing that she would be a blond like her mother, and the brown eyes. Everyone agreed that she would look exactly like Lucy one day, just like how Lucy looked just like her own mother.

"It's really amazing how your kids look so much like each of you, Lu." Levy had stated while it was her turn to hold Luna. Luna smiled happily at her mother's best friend and tried to grab the blue haired woman's nose with her impossibly tiny and chubby fingers.

"I agree." Erza stated. "Considering how much Igneel is like Natsu, I would have thought that his blood was dominant. However, Luna looks like she did not get any of his traits or features."

"She sure is cute, though." Wendy said while making faces at the baby, causing the little angel to squeal with delight.

Lucy sat happily bouncing Iggy on her knee. She thrilled to have a bit of company over. Sometimes it was lonely just her and the kids in the house while Natsu was out on a job.

Then Lucy made a mistake. Normally, she was in a habit of paying close attention to Iggy whenever she was touching him so that she would notice if he was heating up and about to set some random part of his body on fire. With how much he loved to play with his flames, this happened quite frequently, and Lucy had developed the habit as a safety precaution for her own, not so flame resistant body. It had worked incredibly well. Not once had she ever been burned by her young son. This time, Lucy was distracted by the wonderful conversation with her friends and their entertaining methods of trying to get Luna to laugh.

Iggy set his right fist on fire and grabbed his mother's forearm. Lucy, in pain and startled, let go of Iggy. He tumbled safely from her lap to the floor, perplexed by his mother's pained screech.

"Lucy!"

Lucy was not actually sure if one of her friends or all of them had called her name. She was just in too much pain from her burned arm to really pay that much attention. She looked at the raw flesh and recognized that it was not a simple burn that some cream or ointment would be able to fix. It was deep.  
Wendy's sweet voice cut through to grab Lucy's attention.

"Lucy?" The blonde in question nodded her head to acknowledge the healer. "You have a pretty bad burn, but I can heal it. It will leave a scar, though."

Lucy nodded again and sighed with relief at the soothing sensation of Wendy's sky magic seeping into her wound.

"Mama? Mama?"

All heads except Wendy's turned to the confused toddler still sitting on the ground with a lit fist.

"Come here, Iggy."

Lucy knew that it was time to try to have a talk with her son. His fire was getting stronger, and the risk that he might burn someone else like he had just burned her was high.

"Iggy, look at Mama's boo boo."

Iggy curiously looked at the angry red burn on his mother's arm.

"See that boo boo?"

The little pink haired head nodded.

"Fire made that boo boo on Mama."

His little eyes widened to almost comical proportions.

"NOOO!" He cried out. "Fire not hurt at all. See!" He once again held up his fiery fist.

"No, Iggy. Fire doesn't hurt you, and it doesn't hurt Daddy. It can hurt Mama very much."

The toddler's expression was becoming increasingly forlorn.

"Hurt Mama?" Lucy nodded. "Fire bad?" Iggy's little eyes began to water. He looked like his world had come crashing down around him.

"No, sweetheart. Fire isn't bad. You just need to start being more careful with it. Make sure it never touches anyone. If it doesn't touch them, it won't hurt them."

"No touch, no hurt."

Lucy hugged him with the arm that was not being healed by Wendy, taking careful note that he put out his fist before hugging her back as tightly as his little baby arms could hug. It looked like she might have finally reached a turning point with her son, and things could not have been brighter.

After that day, no one gave Lucy a hard time about Igneel ever again.

 _UUUUUUUUUUUUU_

 _I'm surprised I had enough time to sign in and post today. I've literally survived two major floods since last posting. Not kidding in the slightest. You can ask ShanaHollows or quite-a-riot. They've been subject to my Facebook being covered in pics, videos, and much whining about Nature's mood swings. Dealing with the flooding and clean up has been exhausting. At least maple season ended yesterday, so I get a few days of reduced hours before I have all of my spring training and meetings. I'm part of several organizations, including holding board positions in some of them, and March is when ALL the meetings and training seminars are, for some God forsaken reason. I'll repost a new chapter of each story plus a brand new post manga one shot before that mess starts. Unless there is a third flood, which is possible. I love living in a temperate rainforest...just not in spring..._


	4. Chapter 4

Mira Jane happily went about her business of tending the Fairy Tail guild's bar and serving drinks and food to the members within. While it did not seem like a very dignified job, in fact some would call it demeaning, Mira truly loved her work. She enjoyed her rowdy guild, destructive brawls and all. She loved that her job allowed her to see her husband all of the time, and she loved that it allowed her to take her daughter along with her every day. If there was one thing that was most important to Mira, especially after all that had happened with her sister, Lisanna, in the past, it was keeping her family together and within her sight as much as possible. There were not many jobs out there that would allow her to do this.

Mira also loved her job because she loved the people within the guild as if they were part of her extended family. It was fulfilling to watch as members fell in love and started having families of their own. Erza and Jellal had finally been married a few years beforehand after their tumultuous past left many wondering if they would ever resolve things enough to be able to be together. They managed to pull it together with a whirlwind of uncharacteristic drama that gave Mira fuel for teasing them even to the present. They currently had a four-year-old daughter named Crimson, who was a big factor in the drama, and were discussing the possibility of having another.

Levy and Gajeel were also married. They had a two-year-old son named Gale, who had been conceived almost purely because Gajeel had been jealous of the other couples that already had kids.

Gray had thawed enough over several years of Juvia's not so subtle pining, and had married her a few years before. They had waited much longer than the other couples on having any children, mostly because of Gray's insecurities. Juvia had been ready to pop out thirty-three right from the start. She had finally worn the ice demon slayer down like how the waves batter the shore, and she was currently halfway through her first pregnancy. Mira found it adorable how Gray had been meticulously tending to Juvia's every whim and how he had become a veritable bundle of nerves.

Mira herself had married Laxas despite a courtship that could only be described as emotionally constipated. Even though he had softened quite a bit over the years, he was still a gruff and reserved man. Mira did not mind at all, though. She had fallen in love with him as he was. She had no need for showy displays of affection or anything like that. And even though Laxas was like he was, he still managed to be a wonderful father to their daughter, Lilith.

There was one couple in the guild that gave Mira a never ending source of entertainment. Natsu and Lucy were one of those couples that it had been obvious from the very beginning that they were meant for each other. It had been an inevitability that they would get married one day and have a family.

In fact, when the guild had placed bets on their relationship, no one had gambled on if the two would get together. The bets were only on when they would get together. It had taken a bit longer than anyone had expected, partially because Natsu had actually thought that the two of them were already together.

He had thought that when he had asked her to be his partner that her agreeing had meant that they were together in a romantic sense. When asked why he had not attempted to kiss her during all of the time that they had been partners, he had simply stated "She didn't seem like she was ready for it." Cana had then joked about Lucy not being ready for kissing but he sure didn't mind having his face in her cleavage nearly constantly. He had shamelessly shrugged, saying that if fate kept throwing him into Lucy's boobs, who was he to fight it?

This had earned him a kick to the head from Lucy herself.

The two had had a fairly short courtship after that. Natsu, after learning that Lucy had not been on the same page as him, had given her a whirlwind romance to make especially sure that she knew his intentions. Natsu proposed after just a few months, clearly not wanting the whole thing to drag out for any longer than it already had. Lucy had blushingly accepted after kicking Natsu in the head for proposing by writing all over the guild hall with his fire. The couple were forced to wait a full week afterwards to begin planning their wedding since Natsu was in traction in the infirmary from Master Makarov and Erza dealing out his punishment, and they refused to allow Wendy to heal him.

It was during the wedding planning that Mira and the other girls in the guild learned the surprising fact that Lucy was still completely a virgin. The only thing that she had done was have a few kisses, all of them from Natsu. It was astounding to the other girls since Lucy was twenty years old at that point. All of the other girls had lost theirs at that point, although only a few of them had been with more than one man.

"How can you still be a virgin?" Cana had slurred with her arm draped across Lucy's shoulders. "No one stays a virgin this long! Is something wrong with you?"

"It shouldn't be that surprising!" Lucy had exclaimed, her face blushing brightly enough to be used as a signal flare. "When I lived at the Heartfilia Estate, I was completely alone. There wasn't anyone around that I could get close to like that. When I left there at 16, I was focused completely on getting more keys, training my magic in the hopes of being good enough to join Fairy Tail because I thought I would have to pass some insanely hard test to get in, and doing freelance mage jobs for practice and for earning enough money to keep going. I didn't even talk to anyone that I wasn't doing odd jobs for. Hell, Natsu was my first actual friend besides a Celestial Spirit. Then once I joined the guild, I never had an opportunity to go on a date, let alone get into bed with someone."

"I remember you had a date with that one guy with glasses," Cana had replied.

"And I ended up ditching him because Natsu and Happy were so depressed that I wouldn't be able to go on that surprise mission with them. I haven't had a single date offer since, nor have I really been looking considering it has been one life and death crisis after another."

"But what about during that year all of us spent apart?" Levy had asked curiously.

Lucy sighed tiredly.

"All of you remember just how high energy my boss, Jason, is, right?" All of them nodded. "Well, that isn't a public persona type of thing. That is how he is. All. The. Time. I like him a lot; he gave me a job when I desperately needed one and has become a good friend, but he is exhausting to be around every single day. I don't see how he keeps up like that. And when I wasn't too tired from him, I was one hundred percent focused on gathering info on everyone from the guild. That took every bit of spare time I had. Then there was the fact that I just didn't feel like it. That was a bad time for me emotionally, and I wasn't in a place to give someone a chance to get close to me." Lucy took in a breath. "There is one other thing. My mom had me promise to only be with the man that I love, the man I marry. She told me that making love should be special, and that my first time is a precious gift that I should bestow only to the man that proves he is worthy of it and that loves me with every fiber of his soul. A man willing to wait until marriage is a man that is less likely to just be out to use my body and leave. I willingly made that promise even if I was young at the time, and Celestial mages never break promises."

"Wait," Cana said. "So, you're telling me that Natsu is over at your place all the time, has grabbed your boobs, had his face in your crotch, slept in your bed with you in it, and he hasn't tried to have sex with you?"

"Actually, he hasn't. I told him that I want to wait until after we're married, and he wasn't bothered at all. It might be part of the reason why he proposed so quickly, though…"

Mira laughed.

"If he was anyone else, that would sound worrisome, but Natsu has already been waiting for so long. We all know he's not in it just for sex."

"So," Lucy asked hesitantly. "What is it like?"

The wedding planning for that day was thrown out of the window as the conversation switched completely over to the girls all recounting the stories of their first times. Mira giggled to herself as she remembered how traumatized Lucy looked by the time Natsu had come to pick her up.

The wedding had been held just a few weeks later. It was a quick and simple ceremony followed by a raucous party typical of the Fairy Tail guild. The entire guild broke out into laughter as Natsu decided to skip out on the party early, scooped Lucy into his arms, and took off to parts unknown to start their honeymoon. They were not seen again for nearly a month and caused many chuckles over the fact that both of them had apparently lost weight and looked bedraggled.

After that, the two of them could not seem to keep their hands off of one another, and it came as no surprise to anyone when Lucy announced that she was pregnant a mere three months after the wedding. Lucy was a basket of nerves throughout the pregnancy, though she was happy. Natsu could hardly keep the grin from his face. Master Makarov kept trying to get someone to succeed him so that he could retire before Natsu's spawn was big enough to cause damage.

He was right to be worried since little Igneel was a carbon copy of his father. At nearly three years old, he caused more than his fair share of trouble. He was currently wrestling with his father and a few other guild members in a tamer version of a guild brawl, his little face adorned ear to ear with a happy grin completely identical to Natsu's.

The Dragneel household's second born child, Luna, was a surprise to most of them. They had not expected the couple to have kids so close together. Lucy said that it was a second birth control failure, and that it was not intentional.

Luna Dragneel was a delightful little fourteen month old toddler. She was sweet, gentle, and looked just like her mother with golden hair and chocolate brown eyes. She was content to sit in one spot and quietly play with her toys near where her mother sat by the bar, unlike her bundle of energy older brother.

Mira looked over to where Lucy sat, her blonde head laying morosely on the bar's countertop. She had been sitting like that ever since the family had arrived at the guild hall almost an hour beforehand. It was starting to worry the takeover mage that Lucy seemed so down.

As soon as she was finished delivering the tray she was carrying to its table, Mira Jane made her way behind the bar to try and get Lucy to spill her problems.

"Why so glum, Lucy?" She asked, her concern showing through her cheerful exterior.

Lucy slowly lifted her head, looked Mira in the eye, and held up three fingers. Confused, Mira asked for her to elaborate.

"Three. Baby number three is on its way," the Celestial mage replied before allowing her head to drop back onto the bar.

"Three? You're pregnant again?"

Lucy just nodded from her pitiful position.

"I thought you said you were done?"

"Birth control is not my friend."

Mira sighed in sympathy.

"Have you told Natsu, yet?"

"Pfft. He's the one who told me just this morning."

"Oh, my."

Natsu picked that moment to stride over to his wife and throw his arm across her limp shoulders.

"It'll be fine, Lucy. Maybe we'll get another Luna…oof!"

Lucy removed her elbow from her husband's gut and went back to sulking.

Mira Jane could not help but laugh lightly at the pair.

"Well, I'm excited for you two. It will work out. You know you will love your new little bundle of joy just as much as the others."

She must have spoken more loudly than she thought because she had apparently drawn the attention of the rest of the guild. Murmurs quickly swept through the hall.

"Fire fart knocked her up again?" Gray called from across the room.

"Lucy, haven't you figured out what causes that, yet?" Wakaba shouted. This triggered Lucy to launch a beer tankard straight into his face. Her aim was almost scary considering the fact that she never raised her face from the counter.

"Is this becoming a running gag with you, Lucy?" Cana asked from around the mouth of her current bottle of booze, causing the Celestial mage to groan.

Mira laughed harder. The guild would have more exciting times to come.

UUUUUUUUUUU

 _This is slightly revised from it's original version to better fit the revisions in Stellar Fairies and Demon Dragons. For those of you who don't know, The Test is a direct sequel to SFDD. If you have a good eye, Test will give you some spoilers, but only if you are looking for them._

 _Still alive, but nature and my kids seem to be trying to kill me. Lol. Last night I tripped over a deer skull, of all things, that my kids decided to bring in the house without my permission. The flood waters washed it into the yard, and they wanted to keep it. -_- Why do kids like gross things?_

 _Now I have to go buy 200lbs of sugar to feed my honey bees and pray that I don't get flagged as a moonshiner. Lol!_


	5. Chapter 5

"What the hell is that?"

Lucy was beginning to believe that her oldest child had finally driven her to full blown insanity. She had finally lost what little mind she had left. There was no other explanation for why she kept hearing what sounded like baby chicks peeping every time she went into the living area of the house.

Shifting her youngest child, one week old Haru, into a better position as he nursed, Lucy looked around the room trying to find the source of the noise. It was so persistent that she could not possibly ignore it. No matter which way she turned and tilted her head, she could not find the source of the incessant sound.

As soon as Haru was finished, she burped him and put him in his bassinet so that she could better hunt down the noise, and hopefully prove that she hadn't gone completely mad and started hallucinating. She circled the room over and over, moving things out of the way in her search, but to no avail. The peeping died down after some time, and she could not find a single clue as to its source.

Sighing in irritation, the young mother went over to where her second born child was happily playing with a plush baby doll. Luna's eyes lit up at the sight of her mother coming to play with her, and the two enjoyed having some mother daughter time while Haru was napping and Iggy was out with his daddy catching fish for dinner. It wasn't often that the two got to have such quality time together with all of the loud and sometimes obnoxious males in the house, so they made sure to enjoy it while they could.

The two had a peaceful hour before the front door was kicked open, and two pink heads bobbed through laughing and making all sorts of commotion. Lucy and Luna sighed in unison, both looking so much alike in the process that there was no mistaking their relation.

"Lucy! Look at this huge fish Iggy caught! He got the biggest outta all of us." Natsu's ear to ear grin was closely matched by his oldest child's own proud grin as the little boy held up a fish that was over half his size.

"Looks like we'll be having a feast tonight," Lucy said as she smiled gently down at her son.

"I'm gonna go clean his fish and the others I caught so you can cook them," Natsu said before grabbing Iggy's catch and heading back to the door.

"Okay," Lucy nodded to her husband. "I need to gather up the laundry so I can wash it in the morning, anyway. I had so much fun playing with Luna here that I didn't notice how late it was getting."

"I'm going with Daddy!"

And Lucy and Luna were again left to themselves for the moment. Lucy happily smiled and began humming a cheerful tune as she went about the house picking up all of the stray clothes. Luna toddled after her, clumsily trying to help her mother with the chore, but failing in an adorable manner. She often tugged too hard on an article of clothing and fell back on her tiny, diapered behind. Lucy could not help but laugh at the cuteness of it. She had never had this experience with Iggy. She would have never let Iggy anywhere near the laundry at that age for fear of it being consumed in flame. She still had that fear, even though he was much better at controlling his power.

It was while mother and daughter were having such a good time together that the peeping began anew. It started out quietly, but gradually grew in volume. Lucy felt as if it were mocking her with its still invisible presence.

Laundry forgotten, she began once again to hunt down the source of that racket. It never seemed to come from a specific place. No matter where she looked, under the counters, furniture, or hidden corners, it never seemed closer or farther away. The sounds hung in the air like dust motes.  
As she continued her search, the peeping abruptly stopped. It stopped and vanished as if it had never been.

Lucy did not get a chance to look for it any longer after that as Natsu and Iggy returned with the fully cleaned fish fillets ready to go into the pan. Both of them were so loud that she knew she would never be able to hear the noise to find it even if it started back up again.

Setting Luna in her high chair and giving a quick glance to Haru to make sure that he was still sleeping despite his brother and father making more noise than a PMSing elephant, she set to work making the normal army sized dinner for her piranha family.

As she cooked, Natsu and Iggy took turns telling stories of their fishing trip to a spellbound little Luna. It really did not matter to Luna exactly what the older two Dragneels were saying to her, especially since she had already shown a lack of interest in fishing. Luna just really loved the two pink haired men in her life. She practically hero worshipped her father, which he absolutely lapped up, and in turn he was wrapped around her little finger so tightly that he nearly cut the circulation off. Luna's relationship with her brother was nearly the same, except she would sometimes bonk him on the head with a toy if she was angry enough at him. Natsu had told Lucy that he could see 'Luna Kicks' coming sometime in the future.

Shortly before dinner was finished, the peeping began once again. This time, however, Lucy just could not take any more of it and let out a frustrated scream.

"I can't take it anymore!" She threw herself into her startled husband's arms. "It won't stop, and I can't find where it's coming from. I don't even know if it's real or if Iggy finally made my mind snap. Please tell me that you can hear it, too?"

"I can definitely hear it," Natsu said as he began glancing around trying to locate the source of his wife's near hysteria. "It sounds like baby chickens, but it's really hard to pinpoint where it's coming from."

"I know! I've been trying to find it, but it's coming from everywhere."

Neither adult noticed as a nervous Iggy slipped out of his seat at the dinner table and slunk out the back door.

Natsu and Lucy took dinner off of the stove to keep it from burning and began searching the house together. They searched every nook and cranny they could find, but did not have any better luck than Lucy had previously. The peeping seemed to have no source at all.

"Do you think it could be a spell or a curse?" Lucy asked.

"I don't really smell any foreign magic, so I don't think so," Natsu answered while scratching the back of his head in frustration.

Haru began to stir, so Lucy went over and picked him up.

"I just don't get it," She said while cuddling the cooing bundle in her arms. "Where the hell is this coming from?"

"Chick chick!"

Both Natsu and Lucy snapped their heads toward where Luna still sat in her high chair. She was smiling ear to ear, looking upwards and reaching for whatever had grabbed her attention. The two tired parents went to their daughter to try to see what she was so interested in.

And were shocked to see a baby chick peaking its tiny head over the edge of the ceiling fan. A baby chicken. On the ceiling fan blades. Just standing there peeping.

A quick check around the house revealed that in every room with a ceiling fan, there were baby chicks on top of the flats of the blades. They were all perfectly unharmed, Lucy noted with relief. With each chick rescued, Lucy's temper burned hotter and hotter. By the time they had found all of them, she was in a near rage.

"IGNEEL DRAGNEEL! Come here NOW!"

Her bellow could be heard all the way down to the guild, as could Natsu's laughter at his son's clever prank.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 _I decided to post this in honor of getting new baby chicks today. This event actually happened to me. I thought I was going crazy. Lol_

 _I don't think I'm going to be able to keep the update schedule that I was trying to do. I am so horribly overloaded with work, I haven't even been able to read any fics, or look at my computer, tbh. We also had another flood. My house is never in any danger during them, but it traps me, sometimes knocks out the internet, and it's such a pain to clean up all the debris and damage. I have to do most of it, forty acres of low fields, by myself. My husband travels for work, so this is left on me. This means little time for the computer. Or sleep._

 _I'm also working hard on a one shot, the next chapter of SAD, and three completely new chapters of The Test. The kids have given me so much fuel for that one._

 _Hopefully, I will post again soon. See you later._


	6. Chapter 6

The entire town of Magnolia, normally a lively town like any other, had an unusual cloud of tense energy blanketing it. The citizens of the town could not get over a certain feeling of wrongness that just would not let up.

Of course, most of them realized that it had something to do with the fact that the local magic guild, Fairy Tail, had been quiet as a church mouse lately. If it had been any other guild, this would not be much cause for alarm, but this was Fairy Tail. They could not do anything without something being blown up, broken, set on fire, demon possessed, and so forth. For them to be quiet seemed like a sign of the Apocalypse.

What the townspeople did not yet know, was that Fairy Tail currently felt like they were in the middle of Armageddon.

Inside the guild hall, all members of the rowdy guild were sitting very still and very quietly. No one was talking, drinking, or having brawls. Macao and Wakaba were not talking about their younger days. Cana was not drinking anything alcoholic, another sign of the Apocalypse in and of itself. It was so quiet that you could almost hear everyone's breathing.

There were only two people in the guild that were engaging in their normal activities. The first was Mirajane. There was not much that could keep her cheerful grin off of her face as she went about her day serving food and drinks to anyone brave enough to lift their hand to call for her. There were no verbal calls; it was all done with hand signals. The other member who seemed normal was Erza. She was happily devouring an especially large strawberry cake while Jellal sat next to her as silently as the rest of them.

The silence was broken by the creaking of the front doors slowly and carefully being opened. Normally, this creaking would not have been able to be heard over the daily din and ruckus produced by the lively family of mages, but as things were that day, it sounded through the hall like a bomb going off.

The opened doors revealed the five members of the Dragneel family. Natsu, Lucy, Iggy, Luna, and seven month old Haru. Natsu was covered in a fine sheen of nervous sweat while Lucy fidgeted under the stares of all the silent guild members. The children, not fully understanding but still sensing something was amiss, clung to their parents much more closely than usual.

"Don't mind us," the blonde stuttered nervously. "We just came to pick up a mission before dropping the kids off with Levy and Gajeel."

"Oh!" Mirajane exclaimed. "You and Natsu are going on a mission together?"

Lucy nodded while smiling happily.

"It's been so long since we had any time just the two of us," Lucy replied. "Haru is old enough to go a few hours without nursing, plus he's started on solid food, so he should be fine to stay with Levy while Natsu and I go on a short mission. It'll feel good to have a break."

Mirajane laughed.

"I never thought I would see someone calling going on a job a 'break'."

"Yeah, well, other people don't have Igneel Dragneel for a son. Taking down a dark guild or dealing with ancient demons is a walk in the park by comparison."

"I'm gonna go grab the job real quick, okay Lucy," said Natsu, the nervous sweat gradually increasing.

Lucy, understanding what was wrong with her husband, nodded at him to go. She was not too fond of the idea of staying any longer than they had to, either. No one really liked staying at the guild much anymore. Even Haru noticed the tension and began squirming in his mother's arms and grabbing at her breasts in search of his favorite comfort.

No one noticed as Iggy began scenting the air. He had caught the scent of something delicious. Ever as gluttonous as his father, he immediately lost interest in what his parents were doing and began tracking down the wonderful aroma.

It did not take him long to find himself near his Auntie Erza, although he paid little attention to her. His focus was solely on the enormous and tasty cake that she was steadily plowing her way through. He used the stealth that he had acquired through much practice and crept under the table. With a well placed and carefully controlled stream of fire breath, he set fire to the behind of poor Max Alors, who happened to be the one sitting closest to Erza, though he was still a considerable distance away. Max jumped up patting his behind in an attempt to put out the fire down below. Erza turned towards him to see what the commotion was about. Iggy literally seized his opportunity and grabbed the largest handfuls of cake he could manage.

It took the little mini Natsu mere seconds to polish off his treat and run back to his mother. Unfortunately for everyone else, there were reprecussions.

Max, in a mindless panic, began running around and unwittingly fanning the flames. Other guild members tried to catch him, even Natsu, but he was just in too much of a crazed state. But the real problem did not happen until Max ran into and tipped over Erza's table. The very table atop which sat her beloved cake.

Everything stilled, even Max, as the sound of cake splattering across wood floors reached everyone's ears. It could not be helped. Everyone in the guild was conditioned to fear that sound. Even Jellal began to sweat as all eyes turned to Erza. Erza silently stood, revealing her round pregnant belly.

"You…ASSHOLES!" She requipped several of her most deadly swords. "Prepare to die for this atrocity against my cake!"

Jellal glared at Max.

"Good God, you angered the beast!"

The other members of the guild began to scream and scatter. Erza's hormones were nothing to trifle with. If she was a demon while she was not pregnant, then pregnancy turned her into something even Satan would fear.

"GottagoMirabye," was all Mirajane heard as Natsu scooped up his wife and kids and escaped out the back to safety.

The white haired take over mage calmly watched, with a sweet smile still on her face, as Erza wreaked havoc, carnage, and was that a broom stuck up Max's bare behind?, throughout the guild hall.

"This is much better. It was getting way too boring," Mira said with a blissful sigh before walking behind the bar to merrily clean glasses, perfectly at peace.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 _I figured I would post this chapter in celebration of having to go to a training seminar for work, therefore I feel like Lucy getting a break from the kids. Lol. These training seminars are so painfully boring, but I'm looking forward to having some time to let my mind rest and not worry about using a fire extinguisher on someone's butt because they tried to light their own fart and then try to figure out how they got a lighter in the first place since we only use matches in this house... Updates on all stories will still be slow considering how high my workload is. I haven't even been able to talk to any of my friends. But the next story prioritized to be updated is Stellar Fairies and Demon Dragons, the prequel story to The Test, unless I'm hit with an incredible burst of inspiration for one of the others. The next chapter of Stone Age is outlined with about 400 words written. Time Marches On is about 60% complete for it's outline._

 _I just want to take a moment to tell everyone who has read, reviewed, faved, and or followed thank you._


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